

In 2020, cassette sales more than doubled in the UK compared to the previous year, according to Official Charts.įor more music technology news, click here. Dutch engineer Lou Ottens, the man who had the idea for audio cassette tape, has died at age 94. A structural engineer who trained at the prestigious Technical University in Delft, he joined Philips. Ottens died Saturday at age 94, Philips confirmed. Sadly, he died last weekend at his home in Duizel. Lou Ottens, the Dutch inventor of the cassette tape, the medium of choice for millions of bedroom mix tapes, has died, said Philips, the company where he also helped develop the compact disc. Ottens was also instrumental in the development of the CD in the mid-80s, which succeeded both cassettes and vinyl.Ĭassette tapes have also experienced a recent resurgence in popularity despite the ubiquity of streaming platforms. Lou Ottens always remained down-to-earth about the success of the audio cassette tape, one of the inventions he made possible within Philips. The popularity of cassettes and the low cost of blank tapes also gave rise to mixtape curation and home taping, which can be seen as early forms of playlist creation and file sharing, respectively. Olga Coolen, Director of the Philips Museum, talks about her encounters with him. Sadly, he died last weekend at his home in Duizel.

An estimated 100 billion have been sold since the medium was first introduced. Lou Ottens always remained down-to-earth about the success of the audio cassette tape, one of the inventions he made possible within Philips. Ottens died last Saturday, March 6, according to NRC Handelsblad. The cassette tape took the world by storm. Lou Ottens, the Dutch inventor of the cassette tape, has died at age 94. Ottens then convinced Philips to share his cassette tape design with Sony, helping establish a standardised format that would ensure tapes produced in one country would work in another. Dutch engineer and inventor Lou Ottens, best known for inventing the cassette tape, died on March 6. This compact tape was designed to supersede reel-to-reel systems.

The first cassette tape debuted at the 1963 Berlin Radio Show electronics fair and, by the following year, “Compact Cassette” became a trademarked term.
OTTENS CASSETTE TAPE HAS PORTABLE
It was then that he and his team invented the first portable tape recorder and, along with it, the cassette tape. By the early 60s, he was named head of new product development. Ottens joined Dutch technology and electronics company Philips in 1952. Lou Ottens, who brought joy to many music lovers with his invention of the audio cassette tape, has died at the age of 94. He died on 6 March in Duizel in the Netherlands. His death was first reported by Dutch news outlet NRC Handelsblad, though no cause of death was mentioned. Lou Ottens, the Dutch engineer widely credited for inventing the cassette tape and pioneering the CD, has died at 94.
